Bear Digest

What Bears defense needs to hide while bringing more Dr. Jeykll

What the second half proved Saturday was how the Bears defense is capable of transforming and playing defense that dictates to offenses what they can't do.
Gene Chamberlain|
Getting in the face of Packers QB Jordan Love made all the difference Saturday and couldn't hurt against a more immobile passer like Matthew Stafford on Sunday.
Getting in the face of Packers QB Jordan Love made all the difference Saturday and couldn't hurt against a more immobile passer like Matthew Stafford on Sunday. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The dramatic shift in the Bears' offensive production during Saturday night's comeback largely hid the performance by a Dennis Allen defense that was equally resilient after halftime.

If the Bears can only bottle what turned their defense dominant in the third and fourth quarters and open it up against the league's No. 1 offense Sunday night, they could find themselves one win from the Super Bowl. The offense scored the points but their defense made that all possible by forcing four straight Packer punts after Green Bay had three touchdowns and a missed field goal in four first-half possessions.

They're crediting Allen's  adjustments but also simply getting their act together and their anger level high enough. It's not the type of Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde act they'd like duplicated as they seek out the angry beast for an entire game.

“I think football, to win, and particularly in the playoffs, you have to be able to make those end-game adjustments," Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. "There’s going to be things that teams are going to throw at you that you probably haven't seen on tape. You’ve got to be able to make those adjustments quick.

"The team that makes those adjustments the quickest is usually the team that wins. I think DA (Allen) just did a good job of really taking what we did, what we didn't do the first half and kind of turning it around. Saying this is where we’re at, nobody wants to be down 21-3, but what we going to do? I think the biggest thing is really honestly, not so much scheme stuff. It's like looking at each other in the face like, 'Listen man, we aren’t going out like this.' I think that's really the biggest thing, to be completely honest."

Then desperation time needs to come at the opening kickoff for the Bears, but Ben Johnson said not to forget the importance of Allen's adjustments.

“I think he recognized some things that could potentially help us out and our players brought to life really at the end of the day," Johnson said. "He's coached a lot of football in this league. He's very smart. I think he does a great job of tweaking some things as we go through the game, tweaking some things as we've gone through the season to help us out as much as we possibly can and then it's up to the players to come through for us. It was a good combination of both.

"I do think he adjusted a couple things, and I think our guys really brought that vision to life.”

One thing they did very well was run more stunts up front in the pass rush. It helped Montez Sweat and Austin Booker get into the face of Packers QB Jordan Love more, and take him out of his comfort zone. Green Bay had a weakness at pass blocking at center, and then lost Sean Rhyan to injury, and that only meant they were all the more exposed.

NFL.com analyst Brian Baldinger did a good job showing one of these instances in the second half. Sometimes the tactics involved fake stunts. There was another maneuver by Sweat like this that resulted in a QB hit.  

The Bears basically mixed it up more up front than they had. They're going to face a familiar face at center this week with former Bears center Coleman Shelton, who is graded 36th by Pro Football Focus from 40 NFL centers at pass blocking. He wasn't much of a pass blocker in Chicago, either. It helps to be able to come up the middle.

Anything they can do without giving away coverage help can't hurt against the Rams, and veteran QB Matthew Stafford. He's more likely to know when blitzes are coming. Conversely, anything they can disguise in coverage can only help their challenged pass rush.

This is a defense with obvious weaknesses but they can be hidden like they did in the second half Saturday.

“Obviously when you rush somebody, you lose somebody in coverage and vice versa," Edmunds said. "It changes different things as far as scheme-wise. As far as how that affects us, it really depends on the quarterback, it depends on the scheme, how you want to attack them, how they want to attack us.

"Obviously, you look at how they are versus pressure or if you sit back in coverage. You figure out as a team what we want to do to affect the offense.”

More than anything else, though, the Bears jammed up the run and made it  so Green Bay had to pass. This was something they hadn't done in the first half and it's something they've had trouble doing against many teams this year or they wouldn't have finished the regular season ranked 27th stopping the run. They held the Packers to seven carries for 6 yards in the second half.

“I think we just did a good job executing, the guys up front dominated the line of scrimmage," Edmunds said. "I think that's really just the message moving forward. We’ve got to win up front, us as linebackers got to do our thing as far as coming downhill and we’ve got to fill in the secondary. I mean it's all three levels.

"We preach that day in, day out, week in, week out. I think that's what the message is, making sure that we win that line of scrimmage battle and are doing a good job of just everybody to the ball. Get all 11 people and make sure we swarm.”

It's never bad run defense or any kind of defense to get bodies to the ball and it worked to trigger the comeback win.

It was said the Bears couldn't win a game if their defense failed to take away the ball, but they proved otherwise and did it even with their own offense turning it over twice. All it took was better defensive line production and getting bodies to the ball.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.